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"Nature has willed
that every man's children and kindred should be his dearest objects. Yet
these are torn from us by conscriptions to be slaves elsewhere. Our wives
and our sisters, even though they may escape violation from the enemy, are
dishonoured under the names of friendship and hospitality. Our goods and
fortunes they collect for their tribute, our harvests for their granaries.
Our very hands and bodies, under the lash and in the midst of insult, are
worn down by the toil of clearing forests and morasses. Creatures born to
slavery are sold once for all, and are, moreover, fed by their masters; but
Britain is daily purchasing, is daily feeding, her
own enslaved people. And as in a household the last comer among the slaves
is always the butt of his companions, so we in a world long used to slavery,
as the newest and the most contemptible, are marked out for destruction. We
have neither fruitful plains, nor mines, nor harbours, for the working of
which we may be spared. Valour, too, and high spirit in subjects, are
offensive to rulers; besides, remoteness and seclusion, while they give
safety, provoke suspicion. Since then you cannot hope for quarter, take
courage, I beseech you, whether it be safety or renown that you hold most
precious. Under a woman's leadership the Brigantes were able to burn a
colony, to storm a camp, and had not success ended in supineness, might have
thrown off the yoke. Let us, then, a fresh and unconquered people, never
likely to abuse our freedom, show forthwith
at the very first
onset what heroes Caledonia has in
reserve.